NewsWhore
10-23-2008, 04:10 PM
With two dissenting votes, the Supreme Court decreed that the legislation by which the National Congress approved the Concordat with the Vatican in 1954 was within Constitutional grounds. With this decision, the SJC rejected the petition for a decree of unconstitutionality brought by an Evangelical group, the Healthy and Eternal Life Ministry of Jesus on 11 July 2006. The decision says that while it is true that the state is obliged to provide lessons in Religion and Catholic Morals in its primary and secondary schools, it in no way prohibits teaching other religions in the schools, nor has evidence been shown that this has been blocked by agreements in the Concordat itself. The SCJ held the criteria that while the petitioning congregations do not have the experience in bookkeeping and registration of marriages and other sacraments that has been shown by the Catholic Church, and for which it is held in greater confidence and security by society; and while pastors, officials and deacons of other religious communities may celebrate marriages with binding civil effects, there is no prohibition in the Constitution or in the Concordat that would allow the law to extend the faculty to perform civil marriages.
Regarding the question of whether there is a privilege with the exemption of any fees or taxes on the immigration of Catholic clergy entering the Dominican Republic, which is not done with other congregations, the court says that the exemption that benefit the individuals mentioned is only extended to those who are invited to the country by ecclesiastic authorities. Likewise, the court found that besides justifying this exemption as an elemental courtesy, the mission of those invited is not related to any other activity that is not tied to the religious life of the Dominican people. The dissenting votes were from justices Rafael Luciano Pichardo and Jose Hernandez Machado who said that they thought that the SCJ should declare itself incompetent to hear the case because the Concordat is an international treaty.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
Regarding the question of whether there is a privilege with the exemption of any fees or taxes on the immigration of Catholic clergy entering the Dominican Republic, which is not done with other congregations, the court says that the exemption that benefit the individuals mentioned is only extended to those who are invited to the country by ecclesiastic authorities. Likewise, the court found that besides justifying this exemption as an elemental courtesy, the mission of those invited is not related to any other activity that is not tied to the religious life of the Dominican people. The dissenting votes were from justices Rafael Luciano Pichardo and Jose Hernandez Machado who said that they thought that the SCJ should declare itself incompetent to hear the case because the Concordat is an international treaty.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)